It had been several weeks since Andrew had run away from home. Peter had no new leads, there had been no sightings, nothing.
School started and despite her protests, he made Violet go. She insisted she stay home and help look for clues to where Andrew was, but Peter told her there was literally nothing that she could do at this time.
Felicia came and went as she pleased. Until Harry and Scarlet were captured, she and Peter agreed it wasn't safe for her to go home. The problem was, ever since Peter had escaped the underground safe-house, there had been no more incidents involving either of them. This was even more unnerving to Peter and Felicia because they obviously had not packed up and gone home.
Aunt May had littered the city and surrounding suburbs with Andrew's picture. Even so, they had gotten no phone calls or tips. Peter was starting to feel very pessimistic about the whole thing, but he was not giving up.
"Dammit!" Peter swore as he brought his fist down on the newspaper lying on the table. The article had read, "New York City Safe Again?", and explained how neither of the black or red suited superhumans had been seen recently.
He looked over at Felicia who was staring intently at the ceiling.
"You're not going to find any answers up there," he snarked as he crumpled up the paper and tossed it into the trashcan.
"It's hard to think when all you do is swear and get angry at a piece of paper everyday," she said, rubbing her temples. "Besides, I have no idea where to go from here. The closest safe house was cleaned out. We checked a few of the others, but they were empty too. We're just going to have to wait until they decide to make another appearance."
"I can't just keep waiting, Felicia. I just- I feel so useless sitting here doing nothing." He sighed and rested his head in his arms.
She sat silently across the table from him. What did he expect her to say? The only reason she was still here was because she needed him to deal with Scarlet and Harry. She probably couldn't wait until she never had to be in this house again. He was just grateful that she was helping him attempt to track down Andrew.
Wherever his son was, he was being very careful to cover his tracks. He hadn't made contact with any of his friends, not that Peter had expected him to, but he hadn't even tried to get in touch with Violet, which surprised Peter.
Peter flinched when he felt a pressure on his arm and he looked up. Felicia was half-smiling at him with her hand on his arm.
"I was about to say some overly-sentimental mushy bull, but the look on your face totally took all seriousness out of it," she sniffed and pulled her arm back to her side.
"Well uh- thanks anyways, Felicia." He took his arms off the table and sat up in his chair. "Vi should be home any minute," he said off-hand, looking at the clock on the wall.
Right on time, the front door burst open and Violet came running inside.
"Dad!" She looked around quickly and spotted Peter in the kitchen. "I know a way we can find Andrew!" she said as she sat herself down at the table with them.
"Oh yeah? How's that?" He forced a smile.
"We can just get him to come to me." Both of her eyebrows were raised, awaiting his response.
He glanced at Felicia for a moment, who seemed preoccupied with her phone again.
"Vi," he started carefully, "I don't think he's going to come. How would you even get ahold of him? We've been trying for several weeks now. I'm sorry but I just—"
"Wait, you don't even know what I mean." she jumped out of the chair. "I can get him to come to me. Remember how we can tell when each other is in danger? It basically leads us to each other. All I have to do is get myself into danger somehow, and he'll come. I know he will." She smiled proudly.
"No." he shook his head. "Why would you even think that's an option? It's not like you can fake being in danger. It wouldn't work."
"That's why I need to be in real danger." She narrowed her eyes. "This is Andrew, Dad. He's my only brother and I need to help him."
"You're not putting yourself in danger to find him. He's already in danger. I can't have something happen to the both of you."
"He's not in any danger, though. I haven't felt anything, so wherever he is, he's not in any danger at the moment. I just- I miss him." Her face fell.
Peter pondered what she had said for a moment. She hadn't felt that her brother was in any danger, that was... curious. Wherever, or whomever he was with, he wasn't in any kind of physical trouble at least. It barely comforted him though, knowing who he was most likely with.
"Be that as it may, you're not putting yourself in trouble," he said seriously.
She stood silently for a moment before nodding her head. "Okay, no problem, Dad." She turned and headed for the stairs.
"I mean it, Vi. Please, don't do anything foolish," he urged her. He sighed as she continued up the stairs without answering him.
"I'm actually worried to see what they'll be like as teenagers," Felicia said as she set her phone down on the table.
"Fuck you, Felicia," he said, although there was no real venom behind his words.
"She kind of has a point, you know," she said thoughtfully.
Peter cocked his head slightly and narrowed his eyes at her. "You've got to be kidding me."
"How does it work exactly?"
"If one of them is in life-threatening danger, the other can sense it. They can sense where the other is. Violet thinks that Andrew would come to her if she were in danger," Peter said carefully, "which I won't allow to happen."
She nodded. "Okay, so one is in danger and the other comes to the rescue. Obviously you wouldn't want to put Violet in any real danger. So... we won't put her in real danger, but..." Felicia got up from her chair and brought her hand up to chin, "would it still work if she only thought she was in real danger?"
"What do you mean? Like fake it?"
"Exactly. I could 'kidnap'," she air-quoted the word, "Violet, threaten her or something, make her think she's in actual danger, and maybe it would draw Andrew out. You could be waiting nearby and once he comes, we catch him and get him out of there." She looked smugly at him.
"That- that might actually work." He smiled. "Felicia, you're a genius."
Just then the spidey pager started to go off. Peter jumped out of his chair and grabbed the pager off the living room table, pressing the response button immediately.
"Spider-Man! That guy who calls himself Mysterio is robbing another bank! He is at Capital One on 7th Street and Navarro Avenue."
Peter looked up at Felicia who had an eyebrow raised at him. He ran into the next room over and got suited up for his confrontation with Mysterio. As he was about to bolt out the back door, Felicia blocked his way.
"You coming with or something?" he said quickly, looking around her.
She sniffed at that. "Yeah, right, hero. I'm just letting you know that I'm heading out. That stunt we were just talking about is still going to happen. Today."
"Felicia, I have to go, now. We'll talk about it later." He shoved past her and swung into the city.
As he neared the bank, he wondered why it was so quiet. Too quiet. That's when he saw it.
He quickly swung down. There were twenty or so officers laying on the ground.
Dropping to the ground, he headed to the closest police officer and put his finger to the man's jugular vein. He felt a pulse.
"Still breathing, thank god." he said to himself. With a quick look around, it seemed like they were all breathing, just passed out. What had happened here?
Peter made his way into the building, frowning as he saw more people passed out onto the ground. There was an empty silver canister. Cautiously, he picked it up. Whatever had happened to these people, it was obvious that this was the object responsible for it. He set it back on the ground and made his way behind the bank.
He heard a man talking to himself, and he silently crept up to the vault. The man that he had encountered at the last bank was standing with his back turned to him, shoving bundles of money into what looked like a pillow case.
"Mysterio, a man with your means I'd figure could afford more than a pillow case," Peter snickered as the man jumped slightly at his voice.
"Spider-Man? How did you know it was me!?" he bellowed.
"The fishbowl kind of gives it away," he said, tapping his head.
The man growled at him and he raised his hand. "Nobody else should have known about this! I made sure that everyone was asleep. It's your turn now."
Another silver canister seemed to pop out from the man's hand. Peter quickly web zipped the canister into the next room just as it began letting out a misty gas.
"Spider-Man! Help me!" A girl's voice came from somewhere in the building.
"More hostages? Really?" Spider-Man rolled his eyes at the man. "Let me guess, your blonde partner 'Gwen' is with the hostage?"
Mysterio seemed to pause for a moment. "...Yes. And if you don't let me go right now, we may have to repeat what happened last time."
"Sorry, no can do."
Peter flung his webbing at the guy and started to tie up his legs. Mysterio quickly pressed a button on his arm and, with a swish from his hand, Peter's web shooters suddenly jammed up.
"Uh-oh, that's not good." Peter began clicking his web shooters but nothing would come out.
He looked up and jumped just in time to dodge a fireball. Peter leapt out of the way and quickly looked behind him; the fireball had gone straight through the bank wall and hit the building next door.
"Crap. Be right back."
Peter ran straight through the burnt brick and into the building next door. His shoulder had a sudden sharp pain out of nowhere, but he ignored it for now. People were screaming and running from the building. He looked down at the smoldering ball of ash on the ground. The fireball had gone through the walls, but the fire on it had gone out quite suddenly. That was good news at least. He looked up just in time to see a teenager in a green apron staring at him, mouth wide open. Looking around, her saw he was in some sort of cafe.
"Mind if I have a frappuccino to go please?" he asked the teenager.
"Uhhh...uh" he stared at Peter, eyes wide.
"Spider-Man!" he heard his name from behind.
Peter sighed. "Never mind, I have a guy to fight and a hostage to save."
He turned around and jumped back through the hole on the side of the cafes wall.
Mysterio was waiting for him in the burnt down wall in the bank. Peter came running up to him and swung his fist, attempting to uppercut him, but his fist went right through him. As if he were a hologram.
"What the—" Peter started as the Mysterio-hologram laughed and then suddenly disappeared. "Well... crap." he said again.
"Spider-Man, help me please!" he heard the voice again. Mysterio was nowhere in sight, so he quickly ran to the room he thought the voice had come from.
"Gwen? If that is your name. Let the hostage—" he began, and then saw a little girl tied up in a clerk's office.
"Help me!" the little girl yelled again.
"Don't worry, I'll help you," he assured her. "Do you know where the other two are?" he asked as he made his way to the girl.
Just then, the little girl started to laugh. Peter froze, quickly looking around. He had no idea what would make the girl laugh; she should be completely terrified. She couldn't be more than eight years old.
The girl stood up from the ground, the ropes on her hands falling to the floor. Peter shook his head as the ropes actually disappeared as they hit the floor.
"When are you going to learn that nothing is ever is as it appears?" the girl laughed again.
The girl's body suddenly began changing. It was as if her body was made up of many different scales and they began switching and turning around. She grew taller, and her brown hair changed to blonde. It all happened within a few seconds, but suddenly the little girl was gone and Gwen was standing in front of him again.
"What- what is happening?" he shook his head.
"How are you feeling, Peter? You don't look so well," the Gwen-look-alike said to him. She suddenly pulled out a gun from her jacket pocket.
"What the fuck is happening!?" he repeated.
He tried to web the gun from her hands but then he remembered that Mysterio had somehow jammed up his web shooters.
"Now don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. Just a flesh wound." Gwen steadied the gun in her hand and had the sights on Peter.
Peter's spider sense was going off like crazy but he couldn't find it in him to look away from the figure in front of him. Who, or better yet, what was this person?
"Wait," Peter put his arms out in a submissive form, "just answer a few questions for me first."
"Do you really think you're in any position for that?" Gwen sniffed and smiled deviously at him.
"I could dodge that bullet still. I don't need my web shooters for that." He smirked.
She kept her gun pinned on him. "But do you really want to risk it? What if Mysterio did more than just jam your shooters? What if your reflexes fail you?"
"You already said you weren't shooting to kill," he pointed out. "I'm just curious about some things."
The blonde pondered it for a moment before answering. "Okay, I'll bite. But I'm kind of running low on time here so please, do hurry."
"You're not the real Gwen Stacy, are you?"
"No."
"So why do you look like her? How can you change what you look like. Wh-what are you?"
She flipped her hair. "I just figured this body," she gestured to herself with her free hand, "would unnerve you the most. I can change into anyone I want to."
As if to show him that she was serious, she quickly shifted through several forms. Peter watched as 'Gwen' changed from several random people, to his Aunt May, to Captain Winchester, and finally to himself.
Peter stared at, well, himself. "That's so creepy," he said as he watched himself steady the gun that was pointing at him.
"So, what's your endgame? You don't want to kill me, but you've obviously trying to get my attention. What are you doing?" Peter wanted to keep her- or him for the moment- talking.
The other him rolled his eyes and put his free hand on his hip. "No, I don't want to kill you. I have to look like I at least tried though, hence why I need to shoot you. Mysterio doesn't know my true intentions, nor will I let him. I'm partnering up with him because it's much easier to steal money when you have a guy that can perform nearly any kind of allusion to help out."
"What do you need the money for?" he pressed.
"What don't you need money for nowadays?" he laughed and then changed back into Gwen.
"You don't need to do this. I have plenty of money, I can help you out," he tried to reason with her. "Just tell me why you need it and maybe I can do something about it."
"You shouldn't offer to help to people you don't know," she said seriously to him. "Now, I have a few questions of my own."
"Do you now?" Peter took a step nearer the window of the office. "I can't wait to hear."
"I saw that your son was missing. How goes the hunt for him?"
Peter turned his head towards her, her face was smug. "Why the hell do you care about that?" he spat at her.
"I'm just... curious," she used his word from earlier, "about why you've him reported as a missing person, considering the company he's with."
"You know who has my son!?" he nearly shouted. "Where is he?"
"The 'where' I have no idea. The 'who' is obvious. He's joined the Black Heart team."
"How do you even have this information?" Peter took several steps towards Gwen, but she shook the gun in her hand, reminding him of it. "How do you know about that?" he repeated.
"Because I'm one of his. Stryker's team, that is. He wants you to join him, you know. He doesn't want you dead."
Peter quickly scanned the girl's head. There was no small blinking chip on the side of her head, like there was with Harry and Scarlet.
"If you're one of his team, why doesn't he have you chipped? It would be a problem if he lost one of his dogs, wouldn't it?"
"I joined him by choice. I didn't need one of those." She smiled and then her lips went into a thin line. "I'm serious though, Peter. He doesn't want to kill you."
"That's why he's sent Harry after me, right?" he scoffed.
The girl sighed and slightly lowered the gun. "They're here to get Felicia back. She's lucky I haven't said anything yet." Peter quickly tried to hide the guilty look on his face. "Yeah that's right, I know she's been staying with you."
"Then why haven't you said anything yet?" he inquired.
She shrugged. "That wouldn't be any fun, or fair for that matter. Anyways, if you want my advice, you should take yourself and Violet to Stryker himself. Talk with him. He doesn't have to be the bad guy. If you decide to join him, I know he'll call Harry off of you guys."
"I never said I wanted your advice. You're all a bunch of criminals. You hurt people. Why would I ever join you?" Peter sighed. "Why aren't you with the other two anyways?"
"Those two don't even know I exist," she said simply. "I'm one of Stryker's secret team members. I get more leash than the others." She winked at him.
Peter nodded, trying to absorb all of the information she was giving him. "What did you mean earlier, about my son? You asked me why he's filed as a missing person, despite his present company. I don't think my thought-to-be-dead best friend who is currently brainwashed to hate and/or kill me really qualifies as the best babysitter."
The blonde scrunched her face up in obvious confusion. "I wasn't talking about Harry—" A loud pop stopped her.
Peter assumed she had shot him, but he quickly checked himself over and found he was fine. When he looked up, the blonde was staring at her torso, which was starting to bleed through her shirt. She dropped to her knees, her gun falling to the floor.
"Parker! Over here!" a familiar female voice shouted from behind the blonde. A woman dressed in all black, wearing a gas mask, was gesturing him over to her.
"But- she's shot—" he began.
"She'll be fine! She'll heal. We need to get out now!"
Peter quickly apologized to 'Gwen' and ran up to the woman. "Felicia?"
"Duh, Parker. Let's go." She nodded to the red car parked near the building, which he found annoying; it was his car. He followed her into the car, nonetheless, even allowing her to drive.
"Did you have to shoot her, Felicia!? She was giving me information about my Andrew!" he shouted, slamming his car door shut just as she took off.
"If you didn't notice, she had a gun trained on you, Parker. I did you a favor. Besides, you got enough information. I wasn't going to let you die before you helped me with Harry and Scarlet." She shook her head.
"Okay, well if you knew how much information I got, then you must have heard her say she wasn't going to kill me," he pointed out.
"And you just all of a sudden trust a villain?" she half-shouted.
"I trust you," he said seriously.
She opened her mouth as if to answer, but then shut it quickly. Peter turned his head to stare out the window. They both sat in silence for several minutes before he realized they weren't going towards his home.
"Where are you taking us?" he said suddenly, peering out the window.
She looked at him and then glanced back at the road.
"Where are we going?" he repeated.
"You said you trust me, right?" she said quietly.
"To an extent, yes." He smiled slightly and she rolled her eyes at him. "I at least trust you not to try to kill me." He grinned at her.
"Well good, then trust me on this." She pulled out her phone and dialed a number quickly. The person on the other lined answered right away. "We'll be there in ten- no make that six minutes," she said as she sped up and then shut the phone.
"Felicia.." he said warily.
"We're going to a more secluded place, away from people." She looked at him. "Tonight... we're getting Andrew back."